I really enjoyed this historical romance that had plenty of adventure.

I was pleased to receive a copy of this from Beauty and Lace Bookclub and Harlequin Mira and found it a good book to get lost in.

When Prudence is held up by bushrangers on arriving in Australia, instead of being afraid she is excited and drawn to Jack the Devil, the man who holds her up.

I really enjoyed the chemistry and romance between these two characters and found there was much more romance than I'd been expecting from this novel. Pru left everything she'd known so that she wouldn't be married off and fell into Jack's arms for convenience which soon turns into much more for them both.

There was plenty of tension, with Jack being wanted for bushranging and past discretions with other felons, and while he tried to shield Pru from the danger, he wasn't always successful. I enjoyed the side characters, and the friendship that Pru formed with them, so different to what she was used to.

A good historical romance, I'll be catching up on The Girl From Eureka which I am well overdue to read.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley. I was very excited to start it but it took me a little longer to finish that I hoped.

The Bushranger’s Wife by Cheryl Adnams is a historical romance following Prudence “Pru” Stanforth and Jack Fairweather, better know by his bushranger name Jack the Devil.

I was curious to see where Cheryl Adnams would take the ending to. How does Jack the Devil become a reformed bad boy?

Throughout the story, there is the looming threat that Jack could get caught by the police and sent to jail. Of course, that threat becomes a reality by the end of the book and now there’s the little problem of getting Jack out of jail. Without giving away the details of the ending, I will say that I think the author handled the ending well.

Prudence grew from a young and naive girl into a strong woman, and Jack was able to reform his bushranger ways and find a family he never had.

This book is set in the colonial days of Australia in Ballarat Victoria, it is a fabulous page turner, exciting, filled with witty banter and a beautiful romance between Jack the Devil, bushranger and the lovely Prudence Stanforth newly arrived from England, as Jack holds up Pru’s carriage a connection is made that will see them forge a future.

Pru has come to live in Australia with her grandmother, as granddaughter to an Earl she has been bought up with all of the luxuries that a lady could want, but Pru needs more she loves the thought of adventure. She loses a special locket in the holdup that has a lot of meaning to her, and when she meets respectable businessman Jack Fairweather at a race meeting she recognizes him and a kiss for her locket opens up a whole new world for Pru of adventure and love when she runs from her family and into the arms of Jack.

Jack has two lives one as bushranger and one a respectable businessman, he came to Australia for the gold rush but found his living holding up carriages he is known as the gentleman bushranger, and has no intention of ever having a wife, but when he meets the lovely Prudence on a heist he is smitten good and proper, and when he finds her riding through the bush very upset he takes her home, and a marriage is arranged and quickly, he has totally lost his heart to this beautiful feisty and adventurous woman.

I loved the setting for this story I always enjoy our colonial days and MS Adnams’s has bought the era to life with her fabulous descriptions of the time, but she has also had me falling for the cheeky gentleman bushranger Jack he truly is a lovable character even if he is on the wrong side of the law he was the perfect hero for Pru, her grandmother had never been able to take away that need for adventure from her and Jack was the man to give her that and the love that would bring joy and happiness. This is a fast paced story with all of the feels that a fabulous romance should have, I do highly recommend this one.

Love a good Australian historical fiction. This one was set really close to home for me, I recognised all the towns.
Pru and Jack were an unlikely couple and yet it worked so well. His bushranger ways were about the thrill not the violence. Would fatherhood change his ways?
There were a few twists and turns in here and a shocking secret.
I thought it was an entertaining read and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Bushranger's Wife by author Cheryl Adnams was a tricky read. A slow read that picked up as the story progressed. Jack's character was hot and cold, Pru equally so. The finale held twists that I was not expecting. A good read overall.
Review copy received from Escape Publishing via Netgalley

I’m quite partial to historical fiction set during Australia’s colonial days. The Bushranger’s Wife follows on from The Eureka Girl, taking a character that featured within those pages and bringing him to larger than life glory in a book of his own: Jack Fairweather aka Jack the Devil, the elusive, yet charmingly polite bushranger. While this novel contained a great deal more romance than is my normal preference, the adventurous aspect to the story, combined with the feisty and tough character of Prudence, made this quite an entertaining read all round for me. Cheryl Adnams has a knack for giving her readers a good dose of cheeky humour, as this exchange of dialogue showcases:

“Jack walked his prisoner towards the house and her eyes widened as she saw the man’s distinctive clothing.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s a priest.’
‘I can see that,’ she said. ‘Why is he bound and gagged and standing on our doorstep?’
‘He wouldn’t come of his own accord.’
‘So … you kidnapped him?! You kidnapped a priest?’
‘He said we had to come to church on Sunday,’ Jack said, as though it ought to make sense to her. ‘But I needed him to marry us today. He refused. So I talked him into it.’”

I wasn’t entirely sure where Cheryl was taking us with this story. A certain level of foreboding set in for me about two-thirds of the way in and this was sustained almost to the end. Other historical stories about bushrangers kept popping into my head and for a while there I was bracing myself. I enjoyed watching both Jack and Pru evolve into their best selves and their relationship was progressive and uplifting for the times. This is the sort of novel that is a joy to pick up after a long and tiring week at work – which is exactly what I did! Recommended for fans of adventurous historical romance.

Thanks is extended to Escape Publishing via #NetGalley for providing me with a copy of #TheBushrangersWife for review.

Portia and her grandmother has moved from England to Australia to live with Portia's uncle. While on the stagecoach, they are robbed by Devil Jack, a bush ranger. When Portia is winked at by Devil Jack, she is fascinated. Her uncle owns a race horse stable. Portia rides very well and the excitement makes her happy. She is bored by the life she is leading. After a race, she is introduced to Jack Fairweather who owns a transport line. She can't remember where she has seen him, but he is very familiar. He could not be the bush ranger, could he? There's love, intrigue and muder. Will Portia and Jack be able to fight the attraction between them? I really liked this book and the characters. It's a look at Australia in the early years. I received this book from Net Galley and Escape Publishing for a honest review.

The Bushranger's Wife by Cheryl Adnams is an exciting tale of an unlikely love story between a young woman of English nobility visiting Australia and the highwayman who robbed her coach when she first arrived. Prudence was a young woman of twenty who had grown up in the care of her grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Carrington. They were in Australia as the guest of her uncle and his wife, who had made quite a success of their lives there. Jack the Devil was and accomplished bushranger who led a crew of three with specific rules: no killing. This fact made him unique amongst his ilk. He stole, amongst other valuables, Prudence's locket, her only remembrance of her dead mother. It was not a valuable piece, but he could not bear to part with it, keeping it in his pocket as kind of a talisman. He only consolation, keeping her from abject loneliness, was her friendship with Brock, the groomsman and her horse, Misha. Things started to go south when she recognized him when her uncle and grandmother finally let her accompany them to the horse races. Odd that he'd led this life for years and she was the one to finally recognize him!

The Bushranger's Wife was a wonderful novel full of twists and turns and interesting situations unheard of in most romance novels. Prudence was young, but determined to live a life of adventure not one married to a married member of the local nobility. She is a terrific character, written with loving care. Jack is everyone's hero, doing the right thing at every turn and loving his wife, the one he had intended never to have. He is definitely a knight-in-shining-armor despite the fact the armor loses its gloss occasionally. Characters and plot are the making of this lovely novel, so different than most of its genre. The conclusion is foregone, the journey is not and it is clever and unexpected. I loved reading this book and highly recommend it as different in setting, clever in plotline, and refreshing in character development.

I received a free ARC of The Bushranger's Wife. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #thebushrangerswife

Charming, different and unusual would be some pretty good ways to describe this book.
This book also had interesting main characters in unusual circumstances. Jack and Pru couldn't be more different than if they had tried. One thing they did have in common was the desire for adventure. Oh, and of course their mutual attraction. And what a way for them to first meet.
The secret that Pru's grandmother has kept from her is a cruel one. And is quite the surprise for Pru and quite the plot twist for me, the reader.
As gentle as Pru could be, she could also be fierce, determined and clever. Of course, that's not counting some of the STUPID things that she did. Some of those had me shaking my head.
Jack came up the hard way learning to be a thief as a teenager to survive. When he held up people he was also especially charming and non-violent. That last part is especially important to the story.
There are a few good secondary people; like Bobby and Katie add to the story.
Things hit the fan in an unexpected way as does the conclusion of the story.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

I was very disappointed with this book. Just didn’t do a thing for this reader. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

This book was quite reasonable. The plot was fast moving and entertaining and the physical chemistry between the characters was strong. However I felt like Prudence and Jack were a in love very quickly. The characters weren’t really fleshed our in the way I hoped they would be. The book was fairly predictable in its events. Pru’s relationship with her family I felt could have been more complex. Overall a light and quick read set in the Gold Rush period of Australian history but the characters weren’t as vibrant as I thought they could have been.
Due to my low rating I have not linked this review to my blog or Goodreads as I’m aware authors and publishers put in a lot of hard work into books. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

I enjoyed reading this delightful tale! This book is a fictional drama set in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia in 1861. It’s really about opposites that attract. A tale that has been told many times, but the author gives us a varied spin on the tale that makes it an interesting read
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Jack the Devil and Prudence meet when he robs her coach. Jack is nothing but an uncouth criminal and Prudence is a fined woman of stature. Two people on opposite sides of society.

As the story unfolds we learn the depths of Jack’s character. That he’s really a sensitive and loving person looking for a better life. We discover that Prudence is a strong woman, she knows her role in society, but refuses to fall into its confinement. She desperately craves freedom and independence.

Are they really that different?

Already frustrated at her grandmother’s attempts to marry her off to a proper gentleman worthy of her stature, Prue doesn’t waste any time running off when further family secrets are revealed. The sting of betrayal runs deep and forgiveness not so easy to give. Prudence runs straight into the arms of Jack the Devil.
Believing that they can give each other the life they are really looking for, they marry. Together these two are steamy!

“Sweet Jesus, she was a wildfire, hot and bright and out of control.”

But Prudence soon discovers

“All she’d found after only a few weeks of wedded bliss were shackles of a different kind.”

Prudence questions her decisions and their love. Unfortunately, fate isn’t done with them yet and throws many obstacles in their path. These two will discover what true love is. They will have to decide if they will fight to keep that love and worse yet, will fate let them have it?

An interesting read for sure. But I have to admit I had hoped Prudence would turn Jack around, but instead she joined in his adventures and was proud of herself for helping him steal from people. Like an old fashioned Bonnie and Clyde story, but missing the parts that made me love and route for them. If you can overlook those parts you will get an entertaining read.

The plot sounded really interesting, but sadly my expectations wasn't met. I wanted to like this book, a historical romance with a power dynamic and strong minded female character.
But I didn't find Prudence interesting of a character at all, and Jack was plain boring. The chemistry was there, but I just wasn't invested in them at all. Not a good thing in a romance book.
The book started good but then it dwindled the further into the story I got, it was like the steam of the story had ran out a quarter in.
I ended up disappointed in this book.

Prudence Stanforth grew up in England with her grandparents until her grandmother decided to go to Australia. Pru has a wild streak to her, but keeps it "under control". She knows her grandmother will pick a man she deems worthy for her granddaughter. Pru and her grandmother are robbed on their way to see her uncle and the man who robs them strikes something within her. Jack the Devil, the bushranger, aka Jack Fairweather, the businessman, enjoy the thrill of robbing stagecoaches. Jack cannot forget Pru and when they meet in town, sparks fly, but they are in different social classes. When Pru discovers her family has lied to her for years, she runs away, right into Jack. She convinces him to take her with him, knowing his secret, but not forcing him to change his ways. Over time, they become closer, their passions igniting, and still bushranging. Events occur, which forces them to think about the life they are currently living and the one they want to have for the long term.

"The Bushranger's Wife" started off on a high note but unfortunately as the story progressed, it started to dwindle down and I became quite disappointed by the direction of Prudence and Jack relationship. What led me to this novel originally was the blurb. I became intrigued by the premise and was fascinated by the idea of Jack robbing Prudence at gunpoint during her carriage ride home later causing a possible courting. You're able to feel the intensity of their attraction through the pages in the first few chapters of this Western romance but once the leading lady decided to run away from home after discovering a dark secret her grandmother hide from her since birth, the romance loss is momentum and became way too instant for me. It started off good than escalated to a point that just seem unbelievable. Furthermore I wasn't a fan of the heroine. It felt like she was more into Jack the Devil unlawful ways than the man himself and her childish tendencies was annoying at times. Overall, an okay read that left me disappointed and wanting more.